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Devil May Cry (デビル メイ クライ,Debiru Mei Kurai?, frequently abbreviated as DMC) is an action game developed and published by Capcom, released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2. Although it is the first game in the series of the same name, the events in Devil May Cry are second in the series storyline's chronological order, taking place after Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening and before Devil May Cry 2 and Devil May Cry 4. Set in modern times on the fictional Mallet Island, the story centers on the characters Dante and Trish and their quest to confront the demon lord Mundus. The story is told primarily through a mixture of cutscenes, which use the game's engine and several pre-rendered full motion videos. Devil May Cry received prominent coverage in the video game media, high overall scores from professional reviewers, and has sold more than two million copies.[3]

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First hinted at in early December 1999,[4]Devil May Cry started out as the earliest incarnation of Resident Evil 4.[5] Initially developed for the PlayStation 2, the game was directed by Hideki Kamiya after producer Shinji Mikami requested him to create a new entry in the Resident Evil series.[6] Around the turn of the millennium,[1] regular series writer Noboru Sugimura[2] created a scenario for the title, based on Kamiya's idea to make a very cool and stylized action game.[7] The story was based on unraveling the mystery surrounding the body of protagonist Tony,[8] an invincible man with skills and an intellect exceeding that of normal people, his superhuman abilities explained with biotechnology.[1]

As Kamiya felt the playable character did not look brave and heroic enough in battles from a fixed angle, he decided to drop the pre-rendered backgrounds from previous Resident Evil installments and instead opted for a dynamic camera system.[6] This new direction required the team to make a trip to Europe where they spent eleven days in the United Kingdom and Spain photographing things like Gothic statues, bricks, and stone pavements for use in textures.[9][10] Though the developers tried to make the "coolness" theme fit into the world of Resident Evil, Mikami felt it strayed too far from the series' survival horror roots and gradually convinced all of the staff members to make the game independent from it.[11] Kamiya eventually rewrote the story to be set in a world full of demons and changed the hero's name to "Dante".[1] The cast of characters remained largely identical to that in Sugimura's scenario,[12] although appearances of the hero's mother and father were written out of the story.[13][14] The game's new title was revealed as Devil May Cry in November 2000.[15]

The game was developed by Team Little Devils, a group of staff members within Capcom Production Studio 4.[16][17] Some of the major gameplay elements were partially inspired by a bug found in Onimusha: Warlords. During a test-play, Kamiya discovered that enemies could be kept in the air by slashing them repeatedly, which lead to the inclusion of juggles by gunfire and sword strikes in Devil May Cry.[18] According to the director, Devil May Cry was designed from the ground up around Dante's acrobatics and combat abilities.[19] The decision was made late in the development process to change the game to a more mission-based advancement, instead of the more open-ended structure of the Resident Evil games.[20]Devil May Crys difficulty was intentional, according to Kamiya, who called it his "challenge to those who played light, casual games."[21]

The engine shares a lot in common with early Resident Evil titles in terms of gamplay and file formats, an example of this is the file/folder structure and names, notably the Player Data files (PLD) and the menu texture/font directory (Etc.) in addition to the rooms being named accordingly to ID. These file names and extensions are used extensively in the early Resident Evil games on the PS1 Only, another worth mention is the debug font present ever since BIOHAZARD 2 Prototype being recycled and reused in BIOHAZARD 2 and also reused in Devil May Cry itself. The released game itself shares many similarities in terms of content like the warning screen at the start of the game and familiar game-play system. The game's original scenario was also written by series renowned Noboru Sugimura.Since the game started development as Resident Evil title, although subjective but various general similarities with the series are observable, such as:

Castles are a common setting for Resident Evil, the inside of castle is somewhat reminiscent of the mansion hallway in the first game, however a castle was also used in the next version of Resident Evil 4.

Emphasis on exploring backgrounds and items, with examine description.

Examine text is similar to that of Resident Evil 2/3, if a key item is needed it will be in green color.

It is also worth mentioning that a lot of the original character and enemy designs for the game originally featured known enemies such as G-Mutations. Early designs of Sparda depict him having an Umbrella emblem, and the twin babies concept depicting Tony (Dante) and his twin with an Umbrella logo overshadowing them both.[22]
Some enemies and locations still bear resemblance to Resident Evil enemies and locales: